Antaeus
by Writer of the North
Summary: this is the story of Antaeus the forgotten brother. ONE SHOT


**I never write this stuff and probably never will. I am just doing this cuz my Brother wrote it and I thought it was pretty cool and I decided to upload it on to . Please don't get mad at me. This is a one shot. **

**I don't own anything. I don't even own the story my brother does. **

Ants (Modern Day)

Two Brothers Antaeus and Cronus. Antaeus betrays Cronus during the Titan-Olympian wars by revealing the location of the Titan stronghold. Cronus curses Antaeus and his Family to be shrunken and to live in holes in the ground to be walked on by man for eternity. He also orders all records and speech of Antaeus to be destroyed. But Cronus feels pity for his brother and gives him large jaws that shoot poison and thick armor to defend against other small creatures that are bigger than him. He also gives Antaeus's wife the ability to have thousands of children because of her barrenness and to keep his family line alive.

A story that has been forgotten in the Greek myths is the story of Cronus's cursed brother, Antaeus. Antaeus was Gaia's (the mother of earth) son through Eros (the god of love) because of an extramarital affair between them. Gaia hid him away in the far away land of Spain during Uranus's reign but when Cronus took over, Gaia told the story of her other son to Cronus and Cronus allowed his brother to return to Greece.

Cronus was not angry at his mother for cheating on his father because he stabbed his father in the back. He was actually grateful for this because it encouraged his mother to want to get rid of Uranus. Cronus became close to Antaeus and he consulted him on many issues on how to manage the heavens and earth and everything in it. It was actually Antaeus who developed the concept for "man," who were half god half animal. Antaeus enjoyed his high standing in the god kingdom for many decades and helped solidify Cronus's rule. Antaeus only had one issue with the God king, and that was over the swallowing of his sons. Antaeus had taken a wife by this time but soon discovered she was barren. His father Eros's blood flowed through him and he loved her with all his heart and would not leave her. He was baffled that the King could have something as beautiful as children but swallow them up as immediately as he saw them. But Antaeus loved his brother and did not want to anger him and managed to turn his head (much to his chagrin) and let the king do as he willed. Soon, Antaeus began to see the evil within his brother. He saw how he mistreated his wife Rhea and how she was abused by him. He heard tales of Cronus torturing servants for entertainment. Then, he heard Cronus torturing Antaeus's own creation, man. Finally, he discovered Cronus's dark past of the betrayal of his father Uranus and knew that one day, he must overthrow the brother he loved.

But then, along came Zeus.

Antaeus knew the hooded stranger was no ordinary man when he walked into the kings court. He knew it with every swig of wine the king took until finally, the king puked out all five of the children he had so horribly gobbled up. The hooded stranger was not a man, he was Zeus. Antaeus knew that this was his opportunity to overthrow his evil brother, although it pained his loving heart deeply. Antaeus knew that the Olympians would need an inside man for the coming war and he was closer to Cronus than anyone. Antaeus was the inventor of espionage.

Over the course of the Titan-Olympian war, Antaeus intercepted thousands of key documents and radio frequencies that the Titans army used and sent the intelligence to the Olympians. With these espionage activities, he saved dozens of Olympian lives. Although the Olympians had an upper hand on the locations of Titan soldiers, they could not compete with the strong economy and large population of the heavens and had to resort to breaking the rules of engagement just to hold the line.

It became increasingly harder for Antaeus to gather information to use against the Titans as well. Security in the palace tightened and Cronus's Cronies (Cronus's Secret Service) began to scrutinize and monitor Antaeus's every move. Antaeus had many close calls with them in his attempts to gather information and finally, he was caught searching through top secret files by a high clearance CC agent. Antaeus knew the king would be pained to hear that his brother had betrayed and he would be punished harshly but hoped that their brotherly love would save his and his wife's life.

Antaeus was brought before Cronus immediately and the king decided to lock his brother away until he decided what to do with him.

"I have killed my own kin before," Cronus thought, "Why not again?" but Cronus felt a tinge of sadness in his heart at the thought of losing his brother forever. In his cold, hard, power-hungry heart he felt anger and hatred that the person that the loved and trusted the most, even though Antaeus had been distancing himself from Cronus since before the war, had betrayed him. Cronus knew he didn't have it in him to kill his brother, just like he couldn't kill his father. But at the same time, Cronus had to dispose of Antaeus and neutralize the threat that he now imposed. Cronus's thoughts dwelled on nothing but his brother for weeks and the management of the war was left to his generals for the time being.

Cronus had his brother, whom he loved, brought before him. Antaeus knew he had done wrong by his brother and all his efforts during the war seemed useless now. He humbled himself before the king and looked up into his brother's eyes with sorrow and longing. Cronus saw all the years of companionship with Antaeus flash by and knew in that instant, he could not kill him, but he had already thought of his punishment.

"Antaeus, I love you as my brother, I do now and I always will," the king started, "but, you have betrayed me, and I cannot allow this to happen in my own house. I hereby decree that since you enjoy crawling and snooping around my court, that that is what you shall do for eternity. You shall be shrunken to the size of a poppy seed and live in holes in the ground under gods, men, and the animals and beasts feet until the end of time. You shall be smaller than all creatures of the Earth, and they will be your masters. You will be at the mercy of anything bigger than an olive" Cronus paused and Antaeus calmly stated,

"Do this if you will, but spare my wife. Do not harm her." for Antaeus loved her. Cronus did not understand why, over all the years, that Antaeus stayed with his barren wife. Not until that instant, not until he saw the love in his eyes that his stepfather Eros had passed down to his son. Cronus saw in that instant why he had stayed with her and decided that he would help his brother's lineage live on forever.

"Brother, since I love you, I will give you two blessings with this curse. The first, You will have teeth like swords that can pinch the head off any creature of your tiny size and poison anything larger. You will have armor that can protect you from the swords of other creatures, and the poison of others. And second, your wife shall become like you as well, but she will have the blessing of children, more children than you can count. Her children will be as numerous as the stars and the grains of sand on the beach. You will all live together and be fit to live and die away from this war and my court forever." Cronus was pained that he had to make his brother leave him but relieved his seat of ultimate power was once again restored.

Antaeus's name was shortened to simply "Ant" and he became the father of all ants today. His wife had thousands of children and they made a meager existence off of seeds, plants and hunting down and eating other small creatures. They became the rulers of all bugs and constantly expanded to all four corners of the earth and today, they exist on 6 of the 7 continents. Cronus ordered every record of his brother destroyed because the tragic tale of family betrayal pained him to much. Cronus gradually went downhill and became crazier and more unreasonable with every passing day. When Zeus discovered Antaeus had disappeared and the intelligence from the inside stopped coming, he knew the war would be lost without help form the outside. This is when Zeus finally got help from Uranus' other sons, who finally voted to enter the war. In a daring move, the Olympians and Uranus' lost sons assaulted the capitol of heaven. After that, the Titan-Olympian war became a mop up of remaining Titan forces until the Olympians had secured their power over the Heavens and Earth.

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